


Of Parties and Podcasts

by sapphicsapphire



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, max is their number one fan (specifically of eleven), mutual pining babeyyy, oblivious idiots, rated teen for drinking and innuendos, side established byler and henclair, the party is gay and you can't change my mind, they're soft dumb lesbians, will el mike dustin and lucas run a d&d podcast
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-12-28 03:44:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21130217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphicsapphire/pseuds/sapphicsapphire
Summary: Max Mayfield has two secrets:1. She's a lesbian2. She listens to a Dungeons and Dragons podcastShe's got a crush on one of the elusive hosts, Eleven, but, as she starts her first year at Hawkins University, and meets the beautiful Jane Hopper, she's forced to choose between her long-time mystery crush, or the lovely girl right in front of her. (Or does she?)





	Of Parties and Podcasts

**Author's Note:**

> I posted about this idea on Tumblr, and I kind of fell in love with it, so here I am, pushing the lesbian agenda! Elmax rights!

The first day of the rest of Max Mayfield's life wasn't exactly going great. 

Not only had she forgotten to set her alarm clock, but she had somehow managed to go to the wrong campus, and had gotten so wrapped up in the new episode of The Party that she missed her subway stop, and was now furiously skateboarding to the right campus, just minutes away from being late for her first-ever university class.

In her defense, Eleven had been monologuing, and practically nothing could tear Max’s attention away from her. She would never admit it to anybody, but The Party was her favourite podcast of all time, despite the fact that it was a Dungeons and Dragons podcast. Although she knew next to nothing about D&D, she had started listening because the five hosts of the show were queer, and, despite living in California, her small town by the beach was extremely conservative, and she needed more unabashedly gay content in her life, and without The Party, she probably would have gone insane. (She nearly did regardless. She was very happy to be going to Hawkins University, across the country from her mother and awful step family.) 

Dustin and Lucas, the group’s Bard and Ranger respectively, had been dating before The Party, whereas Mike (the Paladin) and Will (the Cleric) had started dating two years into the podcast, after lots of blatant flirting from both sides. Eleven was very vocal about being gay, but also very vocal about lamenting her single status, especially when her closest friends were all dating each other. The thing that made The Party unique was that no one really knew who the hosts were. Sure, they knew dumb stories, anecdotes about every day life, but no one knew their last names, what they looked like, nothing that could identify them. Eleven in particular, as she didn’t even use her real first name, going by a childhood nickname instead. Unlike the others, she had no personal social media, aside from occasionally tweeting through the official The Party Twitter page, and despite it all, Max had a huge crush on her. She had a deep, beautiful voice, its timbre rich, but her laugh was high pitched peals of amusement. She had a subtle, but clever sense of humour, and Max loved everything about her. 

She knew, of course, that nothing could ever come of it. She didn’t even know the girl’s  _ name _ , for god’s sake. But she couldn’t help feeling… connected to Eleven. (She hated how cheesy that sounded, but it was really the only way to describe it.) She didn’t have a fan page for her or anything, half out of fear someone would find it, half because she refused to admit she was a nerd, but Eleven occupied about ninety percent of her thoughts at any given moment.

She skated up to her building, rushing past hundreds of young adults, carefully looking for the right lecture hall. 009, 010… 011. She smiled at the irony of Eleven making her late for lecture hall number eleven, and walked in, seconds from being late, the ending theme of The Party playing through her headphones. Her eyes searched for an empty seat, and when she finally found one she rushed towards it, throwing herself down, and pulling all of her belongings out of her backpack haphazardly. 

“Skater girl, huh?” said a voice from her right. Instinctually, Max went to pause the podcast playing through her headphones. Something about the voice sounded so oddly familiar. She realized, however, once she looked at the girl sitting next to her, that if she had met her before, she absolutely would have remembered, because she was the most beautiful girl Max had ever met. 

She had short, curly brown hair, perfectly framing a button nose, lips fuller than they had any right to be, and dark, innocent but all-knowing eyes, that were currently trained on Max’s beat-up skateboard. 

“Don’t say ‘see ya later boy’,” Max said, winking.  _ Smooth, Mayfield. Badly reference Avril Lavigne, that’ll get the beautiful girl to fall head over heels for you _ , she thought, cursing herself. Luckily for her, the girl laughed. Her smile was dazzling, and Max decided then and there that her new personal mission to get this girl to smile. 

“So, what’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?” Max asked her, leaning over the armrest separating them, resting her chin on her hands in mock-attentiveness. The girl laughed again, and Max felt her heart warm. 

“By ‘a place like this’, you mean a Comparative Anatomy class?”

“Exactly. What a snoozefest,” 

“Well, a girl’s gotta get off somehow, right? STEM girls make do.” The girl said, shrugging and grinning as if she had just told the best joke known to man. Max nearly fell out of her chair laughing. 

“Max Mayfield, at your service,” She said, extending her hand once she had righted herself and wiped the tears from her eyes. 

“Jane. Jane Hopper,” The girl - Jane - said, shaking Max’s hand. The warmth of her skin lingered on Max’s for far too long after Jane had let go. And if Max’s hand had lingered longer than Jane’s then, well, no one needed to know. 

They walked out of the lecture hall together once the class was over, and continued walking together into a nearby coffee shop. Max had to resist the urge to call Jane adorable when she ordered a hot chocolate, despite the mild September day. Max ordered an iced coffee, like any self-respecting homosexual, and sat down opposite Jane in a booth by the window. Sitting across from her, she could properly see the shirt the other girl was wearing, and laughed to herself when she saw the logo emblazoned across the girl’s chest.

“What’s so funny?” Jane asked, tilting her head sideways questioningly, looking distinctly like a puppy. 

“Your shirt. I’ve never met anyone else who’s been a big enough fan of Dig Dug to buy a t-shirt of it,” Jane looked down, almost as if she’d forgotten the shirt she was wearing that day. When she clued into what Max was talking about, she laughed too.

“I technically didn’t buy it. My friend Mike bought it for me for Chanukah a few years ago. We used to have an arcade in the small town we grew up in, and Dig Dug was one of my favourites,” She smiled wistfully, as if recalling a better time.

“My dad and I used to play Dig Dug at our local arcade, before he passed away. We got really competitive, to the point where my mom would have to physically drag us away,”

“I’m sorry about your dad,” Jane said, sadly. Max waved her hand, dismissing the thought.

“It’s alright, it was a long time ago. Another life. Do your friends go to Hawkins too?” Max asked, quickly trying to redirect the conversation away from her family. 

“Yeah! It would have been really inconvenient for us if we didn’t,”

“Why would it be inconvenient?” Max asked, slightly confused.

“Oh you know, we’re so close we’re practically family, and to be apart would be really hard.” Jane sputtered, her neck and ears turning a deep red. Not wanting to strain a new friendship, Max decided to let it slide. 

“You’re lucky you know people already. I moved here from California, I don’t know anyone at all,” She said, taking a sip of her iced coffee.

“Well, now you know me!” Jane beamed, her smile near blinding. “Oh, a senior friend of ours from back home is throwing a welcome back party of sorts on Saturday, would you want to come?”

“That sounds fantastic, actually. Need to meet people somehow, right?” Max said, nodding. 

“Great! His name’s Steve Harrington, give me your number so I can text you the details,” Jane told her, holding out her phone. Max’s heart skipped a beat. 

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this party thing is a ploy to get my number, Hopper,” Max grinned, taking Jane’s phone and putting in her phone number, setting her contact name as ‘Skater Girl’. 

“Ugh, don’t call me that, that’s my dad’s name.” Jane groaned, before smiling as she saw Max’s name in her phone. 

They stayed and talked in the secluded coffee shop for another couple hours before Jane had to leave to attend another class. 

“See you later, skater girl,” Jane called over her shoulder, walking away from Max. Max watched her retreating form until she was out of sight, before returning to her tiny apartment.

As soon as she got home, she pulled out a notebook and began scribbling furiously, writing lyrics about a curly-haired girl with cuffed jeans and hot chocolate lips.

The week seemed to fly by. She was happy to discover she had two other classes with Jane, a Music History class and a Women in Literature class. They had started up a routine, getting coffee at the same cafe after every Comparative Anatomy class. Max already felt so comfortable around Jane. She felt the same around her as she would around a friend she’d known for years. 

Soon enough, she found herself standing outside a frat house on Saturday, the sounds of underage drinking and a pounding base coming from inside. She stood outside for a few seconds, amping herself up, before plunging into the depths of her first university party. 

Almost as soon as she entered, a cup filled with something that smelled like beer was thrust into her hands, though she couldn't tell who had given it to her. She wandered around the party aimlessly, looking for Jane, pushing through the throng of dancing, drunken university students. 

“Max! You came!” She heard from behind her, feeling a pair of arms wrap themselves around her shoulders. 

“Hi Jane. Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” She said, wriggling away from Jane and stuffing her hands in her pockets. She got a better look at her the other girl, and nearly tripped over her own feet. She was wearing a tight black turtleneck and silver pants, cosmetic glitter covering every visible inch of her skin. She glittered and shone every time the lights hit her, reflecting tiny beams of light everywhere. She looked like an angel. 

“Mike, Robin, Steve, this is Max, the girl from California I've been telling you about!” Max was so enthralled with Jane she hadn't even realized there were three people standing next to her. 

“Hi, it's nice to meet you. I'm Robin. We've been hearing a lot about you,” Robin, a freckled girl with dirty blond hair and a glint in her eye, like she knew something you didn't, and Max liked her immediately. She shook her hand. 

She was also introduced to Mike, a tall, gangly boy with curly black hair, whose voice she thought she recognized from somewhere, and Steve, a classic frat boy with floppy brown hair, presumably the Steve hosting the party. The boys were nice enough, but Robin was Max’s favourite of Jane’s friends, and had the older girl’s number before it was even fully dark. 

At around midnight, Max and Jane escaped up to the roof of the building, looking out into the backyard of the frat, watching a very intoxicated junior try to impress a girl by lighting a joint using the campfire, Max’s beaten up Converse bumping up against Jane’s pristine Doc Martens. Their fingers were touching where they were splayed out on the shingles, pinky to pinky, and Max was acutely aware of the warmth of Jane’s skin against hers. Jane was looking up at the stars, telling Max about the different constellations, and Max was looking at Jane, the stars reflected in her eyes. Jane looked to her, meeting her eyes, and smiled. Max smiled back. 

“Mike and I used to sneak out and stargaze all the time back home. He'd show up outside my window and drag me out to the top of a hill near his house, and when I’d complain about him dragging me all the way out there at three in the morning, he’d just take my hand and smile and pull me the rest of the way.” Jane told her, smiling. Max tried to smile back. Of course Jane and Mike were dating. That just made sense, didn’t it? High school sweethearts. Max was an idiot for thinking she was anything but straight. 

They silently watched drunk joint guy set his sleeve on fire, to which the girl responded by throwing the closest liquid to her onto him. Unfortunately, the closest liquid was her cup of alcohol, so the flames just spread, causing the guy to have to strip off almost all of his clothes. Jane was laughing her head off, and Max faked a couple of chuckles, not feeling in the highest of spirits. Eventually, she made her excuses, and left Jane out on the roof, her glitter covered skin a mirror image of the stars above.  _ Mike is a lucky, lucky guy _ Max thought sullenly, making the trek through the hoards of drunken students. She wished Robin goodbye, and headed out into the uncharacteristically chilly September night. 

She sulked around her cardboard box of an apartment for all of Sunday, before eventually yelling at herself to snap out of it. She had a class with Jane tomorrow, and she had no right to be rude or mean to her because she could never like Max back. Plus, a new episode of The Party was released tomorrow, so things couldn’t get much worse. 

She was riding her skateboard to class the next morning, listening to the new episode, when it happened. 

“So I was at a party on Saturday- yes, Dustin, a real one, and I was hanging out with this  _ super _ cute girl, I mean like, really really cute, and i was trying to have a heart-to-heart moment with her when this guy got set on fire.” Eleven said. Max stumbled, tripping off of her board, pausing the podcast.  _ Max _ had been at a party on Saturday, and that guy had lit himself on fire… trying not to get her hopes up, she pressed play. 

“This guy was so drunk guys, you don't understand, he was trying to light his joint using a  _ campfire,  _ he was that drunk. And he succeeded on lighting something, sure, but not his joint. His fucking  _ sleeve! _ And then this other drunk girl threw vodka on him or some shit-”

Max paused the episode again, getting off of her board and stopping at the side of the sidewalk, taking deep breaths. That was  _ exactly  _ what happened at the party she and Jane were at. Which could only mean one thing. 

Eleven went to her university.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! New chapter coming.... at some point.  
Follow me on Tumblr! @magikmizumono


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